Molecular and Genomic Imaging Center (MGIC)
Summer Program for Undergraduate Students

Application Dates

Success Stories

Application Deadline: February 28, Annually

Success Stories

Program Description

Overview

The Molecular and Genomic Imaging Center, a consortium of research groups at Harvard, MIT, and Washington University, is looking for qualified undergraduate students from underrepresented minority groups to participate in a 10 week summer research program. In this program, students will perform research in the field of genomics, working on a technology that promises to sequence human genomes for hundreds or thousands of dollars. In addition to performing research, students will also be exposed to journal clubs, seminars, workshops, and social activities. Students will be paid a stipend of $4000 for 10 weeks of residence in the program.

Participating Laboratories

Four laboratories will be participating in the program. Two are located in Boston, Massachusetts, and two are located in St. Louis, Missouri. Housing is available in university dormitories (Harvard, MIT or Washington University), with an expected cost of approximately $1000 for the full 10 weeks. For more information about the labs, please visit their homepages:

Eligibility requirements:

The Molecular and Genomic Imaging Center is committed to training a biomedical research work force that mirrors the diversity of our nation. We encourage applications from individuals from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in biomedical research. Biology or engineering majors will be given priority. Unfortunately, students who have already earned a baccalaureate degree AND students who will earn a baccalaureate degree in Spring before the program dates are NOT eligible to apply for this program.

Application Instructions: Please send your CV, and two letters of recommendation
to Yveta Masarova at the following address:

If you would prefer to be placed in a particular laboratory (of the four listed
above), please indicated this in your application.

Research Opportunities

Church Lab: The mission of our group is to develop broadly distributed,
integrated models for biomedical and ecological systems. To make these systems-biology
models useful and accurate, we develop biotechnologies suitable for comprehensive
yet cost-effective systems measures and synthesis of designed biosystems.
In particular, we focus on replication of four systems - mammalian stem cells,
cell-cycle metabolism, microbial ecosystems (e.g. ocean circadian cycles and
biofilms), and "in vitro" mini-genomes. Each of these has advantages
for developing "systems analysis" tools and each represent existing
clinical or commercial practice ripe for improvements (e.g. respectively, stem
cell transplants, metabolic engineering, environmental bioremediation, and
molecular biology "kits").

Although in some ways broad and interdisciplinary, the integration of systems-analyses
and "-omics" technologies does represent a specialized discipline.
It requires a focused and dynamic tool-set and outlook. Examples of technologies
include proteomic mass spectrometry, microarrays (for whole -genome RNA, mutant
growth rates, and DNA-protein interactions), polymerase colony ("polony")
amplification (for RNA splicing, haplotyping, sequencing), and chemical synthesis
of genes and genomes. These are integrated with each other and with relevant
systems models. These models include metabolic optimization, clusters of transcription
factor motifs, and 3D (and with time 4D) models of genome folding and
replication.